TR: Just back from FW Adults only towel animal quest! Part 4 is up.

[plgrn]

**for those who don't know about the towel animal saga What do you have to do to get a towel animal?? **

Me (24)
Mom (old enough to be my mom )
DH/Son-in-law (26)

Arrival Day - Friday, September 29th

Drove to Birmingham in our mouse ears and caught 3:30 flight to Orlando. The pixie dust began before we even got to WDW when the flight attendant began singing the Mickey Mouse club song to us because of our ears! We arrived in Orlando at 6:00 and boarded the Magical Express to Fort Wilderness. We were please that we only had to wait about 10 minutes before taking off and saw a beautiful sunset on the way over.

As soon as we approached the Magic Kingdom, our bus driver led all of us in a countdown 5-4-3-2-1...and we were in! The bus made stops at OKW, Saratoga Springs, POR, and finally Fort Wilderness!

The campground has special meaning for DM and I, since we used to stay there almost every year when I was a child. It had been about 12 years since we had visited, and that nostalgic feeling immediately washed over us. Check-in was smooth and the line wasn't very long, however we met our first Disney of the trip! She was huffing and puffing about the wait, and when a CM knocked over a box fan (she was in a hurry scrurrying around trying to please everyone!) the lady muttered "stupid woman, do your job!" The nerve of some people. We didn't let her get us down since there ws plenty of pixie dust to be had at check-in. The CM's were VERY friendly, happy, and made us feel welcome. Here are some pics of the check-in area.

We were given cabin #2527 in Peacock Pass. It was very close to the Outpost but quite a way from the settlement. Thank goodness we were renting a golf cart the next day! DH fell in love with the theming of FW and wants to go back!

We walked to the bus stop and caught the Settlement Purple bus to the Settlement for our 8:30 dining reservation at Trails End Restaurant. Here is the link to the Dining review Trail's End Dining Review Post on Page 1

Got back to the cabin and the groceries that DM had ordered from Garden Grocers had not yet been delivered. We decorated our window with some orange Halloween lights, and about 10:10 the groceries arrived via a CM. Tip...don't put a gratuity on when you pay for the order from Garden Grocers. They will leave the food at the check-in and make a CM deliver it costing you a double tip! We settled in for the night to get ready for Extra Magic morning hours at MGM the next day....

 

[NMAmy]

I love the pictures! What a beautiful sunset. Looking forward to hearing more about FW--it looks like such a FUN place to stay.

 

[rer1972]

Nice start plgn. I'm heading there in February so I can't wait to read the rest of your report. We'll won't be in a cabin though. We're tent camping.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

subbing

 

[plgrn]

We're tent camping.

DH and I want to do that sometime. Are you bring your own tent or using theirs?

 

[Donald - my hero]

SUBBING -- gotta keep up with my "bud"

 

[plgrn]

Day 2 -Saturday

We were awakened at 6:30 by "It's a Small World" on the wake up call. Ahhhhh!!!! We quickly ate some microwave biscuits from Garden Grocers and realized the icemaker in the refrigerator was broken. The cabins did however have Splenda packs. We scurried to the outpost to catch a bus to MGM for extra magic early morning. Waited, waited, waited....finally a bus driver said, "is anyone going to MGM?" We raised our hands "Oh," he said "you'll have to catch that bus down at the settlement." Crap....by this time the extra magic hour is half over, so we hopped on the EPCOT bus that was already there. We were so ashamed of ourselves for not knowing where to catch the bus! And we call ourselves Disers!! We even had our special shirts on, even though we weren't feeling worthy enough to wear them at the moment.

The bus driver kept us all entertained on the way over, and we gave away our first CM appreciation card to him. We arrived at EPCOT at opening and found the new finger scanners to be a little bit faster than the old ones, but not much. Most of the problem was operator error...know what I mean? Like we saw several people trying to stick their thumbs on the pad. Anyway, once we were in, I had to take a pic of the Beauty and the Beast Topiary out front. So cute and appropriate for the F&W Festival!

We waited at Innoventions for the offical opening with the characters (Donald was not there of course ) and made a B-line for "Soarin'." After a 10 minute wait, we got to sit on the top row which was great b/c you can't see other people's feet in front of you. To me this makes it more realistic. After Soarin', we went to Test Track and walked on. Afterwards be headed over to the Living Seas since DH had never experience Turtle Talk. A fellow guest offered to take a picture of the three of us.

If you are wondering if DH is tall or if DM is short....it's both. DH is 6'2" and DM is 4'9"

We only had to wait 5 minutes for Turtle Talk, and DH was very impressed. The kids were really active and asking questions to keep Crush on his toes. It was fun to watch them having a good time. We then went to view the male manatees that were in the tank next to Turtle Talk. So cute! It was their lunchtime too so we got to watch them chomp down some lettuce. Heading out, we saw that there was a dolphin demonstration going on, so we watched that for a few minutes. Coming up....F&W fest, we meet some fellow Disers, and our golf cart gets rented and stolen!!!! To be continued...

 

[Va-bear]

Anyway, once we were in, I had to take a pic of the Beauty and the Beast Topiary out front. So cute and appropriate for the F&W Festival!

LOVE the trip report - cant wait to hear about the golf cart! OR can I??!!! I have a feeling I'm going to be irritated for you!

I love the tpoiary and have to wonder were we so excited to be there (a month ago...) that I didnt notice it, or is it new?! Either way, its cool so thanks for the pic!

Keep up the good work!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Great start so far. Those pictures of the cabins made me homesick. We had so much fun staying there.

 

[crossfamily]

Those cabins look so sweet. I want to rent a treehouse one time. Gotta wait till the kids are out of stroller though. Too much work now. I love dis towels. Up until this year I have alway had an awsome mousekeeper who would leave us animal towels. Gotta be because of the kids. Try leaving dh's toys laying around instead of picking them up. LOL This may work. I love the pic of the 3 of you. Its funny because my mom is so short too. My dh is 6foot I am 5'7" and mom is 5'1". We look about the same. I can't believe someone swiped your golf cart. Did you decorate it with lgmh's? I love food pics too. I took lots on my trip too. Great TR can't wait to read more

 

[plgrn]

....Off to world showcase for the F&W Fest! Our first stop was Cananda. As I was getting into line, someone shouted "Hey! I DIS!" It was lovethattink so we stopped for a photo op.

I finally made it to the back of the line where mom and DH were meeting some member of the lime green club!

For the Festival dining review and lots of "food porn" follow this link.

After all that walking, eating, and standing in line, we needed to cool off! The Maelstrom had no wait time of course, so we hopped on board. We didn't realize that you can get so wet on this ride! Right at the end part of the ride where the oil rig is, Mom got doused with water and screamed. I think she scared everyone in the boat and sure enough when we deboarded, she was soaked on one side! I even got a little sprinkle. Oh well, it was nice to cool off anyway.

Around 2:00 we went to Innoventions West to get our free Disney Visa picture. The line was so long we opted to just skip it. The three of us headed back to Ft. Wilderness to the Bike Barn to pick up our reserved golf cart. they wre short on supply and people were lined up just to get their names on a waiting list! There was a mix up with the rental days specified, but the CM was kind enough to straighten it out and we drove our cart back to the cabin for a king sized afternoon nap! Upon arrival back at our cabin loop we could see that 80% of the cabins had multiple towel animals in the windows. We had such high hopes that one would be at our cabin to greet us, but no luck. We had even left mousekeeping a tip in a special envelope from the Disign board! Dinner that night consisted of eggplant parmesean and ravioli from our Garden Grocer supply which we ate while watching the AL/FL football game. It was stressing DH too badly to watch it since we were losing, so we drove our cart over to Chip and Dale's sing-a-long/campfire to spread some pixie dust. We gave out 20 orange glowsticks to the kids at the campfire, and stayed just until the movie started. It was magical to watch how such a little thing can mean so much to a child! They had a blast throwing those glowsticks around and burying them in the sand to see how far deep they'd be able to go and still put off visible light. We stayed for a little bit of the sing-a-long

then headed back to where we parked the golf cart so we could drive to the marina and catch the ferry to MK. NO GOLF CART!! #530 was GONE!!! Then we realized there was a no parking sign where we had parked, so we thought maybe security had towed us. Went to the Trading Post to find out, and the CM acted flabbergasted that we could have been towed. Obviously that didn't happen, so where was our golf cart?? After waiting 20 mintues for security at the Trading Post, DH was running around frantically checking numbers on every cart that came into sight. We ran into Mike and Andie at the campfire who are coordinators/directors. Mike hooked us up with a new golf cart (#600) which was a nicer model. Meanwhile back at the Trading Post, security finally shows up and has no idea what to do. The guard took our cart key and used it to randomly start another golf cart! What does that tell you?? He did offer to give us a ride to the marina so we could straighten everything out in the morning, but by that time Mike had taken care of everything including the paperwork! (thanks Mike!!) He got a CM appreciationg card.

Apparently, someone had grabbed our golf cart thinking it was theirs. I mean, hey, it started up right? We are pretty sure this is what happened since the golf cart parked in front of where we lost our original cart stayed parked in the same place for over 24 hours! No harm done except we lost an hour of time. Here's a tip that Mike showed us that not everyone knows...flip the golf cart's front seat up and switch it to "tow" mode. It's not going to start up until you flip that switch back. This will prevent anyone from accidentally hopping in your golf cart and cranking it up.

Not to be deterred, we headed for the marina and took the ferry to MK. It was soooo crowded on Main Street b/c the first Spectromagic had just ended. We headed to BTMRR since mom loves to ride that in the dark and then to Splash Mt. There was a 10 minute wait for each which we didn't think was bad at all. While riding Splash Mt. Wishes started, so we had a neat view of that! Next, we checked out P of the C, but it was way too crowded so we skipped it. Casey's was our next stop for drinks, then on to VMK central for some gaming cards. We stood in line for 30 mintues waiting for the ferry to FW, so we were more than ready to crash when "Peacock Pass" came into view!

Next - MGM and our magical moment!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Sorry bout the golf cart mishap, but thanks for the tip.

 

[lovethattink]

It was great meeting you. Great trip report!

 

[plgrn]

Day # 3

We were up at 8:00 (well, I needed a little motivating to get out of bed. That's bad when you don't even want to get up for WDW! I'm soooo not a morning person.)

then went to the correct bus station this time to catch an MGM bus. We were a little aggravated that it took 30 minutes to drive from FW to MGM! Our driver was overly slow, plus we had to pick up and FWL. Oh well, we headed straight for the RnR Coaster as soon as we got into the park. The wait was 20 mintues and well worth it since this is DH's absolute favorite ride ever! After that, we fast-passed TOT and went over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid to relax. I never get tired of seeing this show however, we noticed this trip that the seating area smells like wet dog! Really bad! I guess it's from all the mist and moisture from the show mixed with sweaty people's rear-ends on those fabric seat covers. I wonder why they have fabric in there instead of a plastic, vinyl material like at "It's a Bug's Life"? Probably because people would then complain about the hard seats.
After the show we decided to ride the Backlot Studio Tour since we hadn't seen it in at least 10 years! On the way over we spied a CM with a Donald Duck pin we wanted so we traded. There weren't many people in line for the tour which is what I attribute to our magical moment...drumroll please.....The three of us were chosen to "act" in the water special effect scene!!! We're not used to getting chosen for anything like that since it's usually the cute little mom and dad with their 2.5 children (boy and a girl of course) that get picked for things at WDW, so we were in shock. We suited up in huge baggy blue ponchos and pants along with rubber boots that went over our shoes. DH was the captian, and mom and I were the deck hands. When the "bombs" started going off in the water, Mom and I stopped swabbing the deck and started acting like crazy people. We ducked, rolled around, layed on our bellies and put our hands behind our head....it was grand fun. I don't know what DH was doing, but he sailed our "ship" safely throught the attack. The whole scene is taped for the audience to watch an immediate replay of with special effects, but as soon as it's played, the computer deletes it. Disney should store the video clips and make some extra $$! There's to telling how much we would have paid to have a copy of it, especially since our entire party was in the scene so no one could take pictures. Here's a pic of us afterward still suited up from the waist down and swinching to see b/c of the sun.

We continued on the tour even though we were soaked after getting our "costumes" off.

All that acting had made us hungry, so we went to the Brown Derby to try to get in without a ressie. We were shocked to be seated after a 5 minute wait! it was 11:30 AM so I guess the lunch crowd hadn't picked up yet. For the dining review, click here. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1243163
When our waiter found out we were scrapbookers (we had asked to keep the paper menus) he brought us 6 recipe cards shaped like the Brown Derby logo! so cute! Needless to say, he got a CM appreciationg card. After our meal, we went straight to ToT to use our fast passes. We did surprisingly well on the ride considering we had just eaten! After ToT it was time to head back to FW for naps and showers to get ready for California Grill that night!

After nap time, we rode the ferry to Contemporary Resort and checked in with California Grill on the 2nd floor. We were escorted on the elevator to the 15th floor and seated with a view of EPCOT and the Swan and Dolphin. Here are some pictures of the view from the outdoor overlook.

You can read the dining review by following the Brown Derby review link.

After spending about 2 hours at the grill, we decided to leave an hour before Wishes and head to the MK. It's interesting to note that if you dine at California Grill anytime in the evening, all you have to do it come back right before Wishes, present your receipt, and they will let you watch the fireworks from the 15th floor overlook. No need to stall until Wishes time. Not that any Disers would do that. We opted just to spend some time at MK instead since we had seen the gorgeous view already and we figured it would be crowded up there when the fireworks started.

We rode the monorail over to MK and waited 15 mintues to ride Space Mt. Then we walked right into Philharmagic, waited 20 mintues for Peter Pan, and 20 mintues for Pirates . Not too bad, but then we had to wait 30 mintues for a resort launch back to FW! I have never seen so many exhausted children in my life in that ferry line! Wish I could have taken pictures of them, bless their hearts. We were glad to get back to FW and crash since we were planning on hitting AK early for extra magic hours the next morning! To be continued...

 

[honeymo78]

I'm really enjoying reading your trip report. I'm glad I'm not the only one who still goes to disney with my mom even though I'm married now. We stayed at different resorts last Feb but we'll be together in March. FW has special memories for us too, since that was where we always stayed until I got to college - sometimes camping, sometimes renting the cabin. We were lucky enough to spend 1 night there last Feb b/c we had to leave home a day early since flights were being cancelled b/c of a storm. My mom was so excited - now she can't wait til I have kids and we all stay at the cabins for the extra room.

Since you rented a golf cart would you mind sharing the current rental rate.

 

[plgrn]

Since you rented a golf cart would you mind sharing the current rental rate.

I want to say it was $40 per day?? Outrageous I think considering you can rent a car for cheaper, but it sure did come in handy! It was nice not having to wait for the internal bus service, plus we enjoyed just riding around in it.

 

[Kycha]

DH and I were picked to "star" in the Backlot Studio Tour show. I was the captain and he was in the boathouse. My deckhands were complete strangers. And honestly, they were lousy. I was up at the wheel, acting my butt off. I was running around like a chicken with my head chopped off while my deckhands just stood around.

It was tragic to think that my stellar performance(not) was completely deleted. (Thank God)

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Wow, I never knew you could rent carts at FW! I wish they had that at OKW! $40 seems a little crazy, but I can see how it would be worth it!

Love your report & pics so far!

 

[corinnak]

It's great to see a TR about a stay at Fort Wilderness! The busses there seemed to me to be extrordinarily complicated - with the two departure points and all.

The golf carts really are expensive, but lots of fun, aren't they? My two kids thought that was almost the best part of the whole vacation when we rented one for a couple of days. That is a wild story about your cart running off without you, though!

Looking forward to more.

 

[Adi12982]

I love your report! I really hope you got a towel animal!